**Live Wire** Jihad in Orlando: Was Omar Mateen Really a Lone Wolf?

Breitbart News presents live coverage of the aftermath of the jihadist Omar Mateen’s massacre at Orlando’s Pulse. One day after the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11, law enforcement continues to release new information on the investigation which is affecting political battles such as the 2016 presidential election and Britain’s referendum on leaving the European Union.

All times Eastern Standard Time.

*****

Top updates:

• Mateen traveled to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates — before the FBI interviewed him in 2013
• A former co-worker reported Mateen’s extremism to their employer but no one took action… because Mateen was Muslim
• Last year, the FBI investigated Mateen’s connection to “the first American suicide bomber in Syria”
• Fox report: Mateen was enrolled in online courses from a notorious terrorist recruiter
• UPDATE – Two trips to Saudi Arabia
• Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton deliver dueling speeches on U.S. response to the attack
• Mateen’s wife knew he was planning an attack; told law enforcement one potential target was Disney World
• Local news station reports police will soon arrest an alleged accomplice

9:30: PM — Clinton campaign chair John Podesta slams Trump, saying that, despite Trump’s many policy proposals, nothing in his “rambling remarks came close to resembling a real strategy for fighting terrorists and keeping our people safe.” Podesta says that “prejudice, paranoia and partisanship are not a plan, and will not protect anyone” as Hillary Clinton drones on with rhetoric that “sounds smart” only to the foreign policy elite.

7:51 PM — : Another Islamist attack in near Paris. “Islamist slogans” (Allahu Akbar) reportedly heard during attack. Child who was being held hostage rescued. According to the Associated Press, “France’s Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve identified the male victim as a police commander and said that his female companion also worked for the Interior Ministry.”

Harold Shaw, special agent in charge of the FBI’s Boston division, said Omar Mateen made the reference to brothers Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev during a 911 call he made early Sunday inside the Pulse nightclub.

5:15 PM — Picks up on the report — from WaPo — that Mateen celebrated the 9/11 attacks.

I thought people weren’t celebrating? They were cheering all over, even this savage from Orlando. I was right. https://t.co/DrVa65X9rI

I am no fan of President Obama, but to show you how dishonest the phony Washington Post is, they wrote, “Donald Trump suggests President Obama was involved with Orlando shooting” as their headline. Sad!

2:54 PM — Trump brings up the radical founder of the Boston bombers’ mosque. “Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community” while she pushes for greater influence of Islamic radicalism.

Trump: "Why does Hillary Clinton want to bring people in in vast numbers who reject our values? Explain."

2:46 PM — Current DC leadership has “put political correctness above your safety,” he asserts. Reaffirms he will not be politically correct. “As president, I will give our intelligence community… the tools they need to prevent terrorist attacks.”

2:45 PM — Trump says Obama is not allowing law enforcement to do their job. “We need a new leader — fast,” he says.

2:44 PM — Trump says he will consult with the NRA on how to help Americans defend themselves and vows always to defend the Second Amendment.

2:43 PM — Trump brings up the Paris terror attacks to debunk Clinton’s call for more gun control. Says France’s gun laws left only the bad guys with guns.

2:42 PM — Trump takes credit for Hillary saying “radical Islam” this morning, saying she has no choice. “She has no clue, in my opinion, what radical Islam is, and she won’t speak honestly about it if she does, in fact, know.”

2:38 PM — “Radical Islam is anti-woman, anti-gay, and anti-American. I refuse to allow America to become a place where gay people, Christian people, Jewish people are targets” singled out by radical Islamic preachers.

2:37 PM — Trump reaffirms commitment to halt immigration from parts of the world with known histories of terror against the United States.

2:36 PM — “We cannot afford to talk around these issues anymore. We have to address these issues head-on.”

Trump: "Many are saying I was right" to call for ban on Muslims. "And by the way, we have no choice."

It remains unclear what role the methods and ideology of the group, which is based in the Middle East, played in the slaughter Mateen carried out at a gay nightclub in Orlando. Investigators say he made a 911 phone call during the attack in which he said he was avenging the bombings of Muslims in the Middle East and referenced the 2013 Boston Marathon bombings.

But if there is a clear link between the attack in Orlando and the Islamic State, it would be the most high-profile incident yet in the group’s wider, relentless campaign against gays. Ever since the group came to prominence amid security vacuums in Iraq and Syria, it has set about persecuting religious minorities, women and others whose identity and lifestyle are anathema to its puritanical creed. In areas under the control of the Islamic State, its fighters have issued edicts against homosexual behavior and flashy hairstyles and promised death for anyone caught in the act of sodomy.

Across the Middle East, the LGBT community faces varying degrees of repression, both because of laws directed against its members and the wider social stigma. But under the Islamic State, things took a devastating turn.

FBI and local police are wrapping the search of the home of Mateen’s family in Port St. Lucie. They removed several boxes, along with a computer from the home at 937 SW Bayshore Boulevard. They also searched the three cars in the driveway.

12:04 PM — Bombshell report: Mateen was enrolled in online courses from a convicted criminal and Islamic extremist known as Abu Taubah.

The gunman who murdered at least 50 people in a Florida nightclub early Sunday morning was a follower of a controversial gang leader-turned-bank robber who was released from prison last year despite warnings from prosecutors that he would recruit people to carry out violent acts, sources told FoxNews.com.

Omar Mateen, whose bloody siege inside a packed Orlando gay nightclub ended when SWAT teams stormed the building and killed him, was a radical Muslim who followed Marcus Dwayne Robertson, a law enforcement source said.

“It is no coincidence that this happened in Orlando,” said a law enforcement source familiar with Robertson’s history of recruiting terrorists and inciting violence. “Mateen was enrolled in [Robertson’s online] Fundamental Islamic Knowledge Seminary.”

11:59 AM — High school classmates say Mateen was jumping up and down in celebration when he saw the 9/11 attacks unfold.

11:52 AM — Interview with a national security expert near the site of the attack. Frank Wuco can boast 30 years of service with within the national security and intelligence communities. He is an intelligence services consultant, radio host, and an expert on the Muslim Brotherhod and Iran’s Islamic theocracy.

In 2015, after Moner Abusalha became the first American suicide bomber in Syria, the FBI investigated Omar Mateen’s connection to Abu-Salha.

Abu-Salha went to the Middle East, trained, and returned to the Treasure Coast, specifically Vero and fort Pierce, to recruit. The FBI says he didn’t recruit anyone, but it’s possible he did have contact with Mateen.

11:26 AM — Obama says Mateen was inspired by online propaganda but was not part of a larger plot.

11:22 AM — Survivor says he blocked an exit from the club after getting out himself. “We blocked this door, and we did hear banging, and I pray it wasn’t anyone trying to escape, because I would forever feel guilty.”

11:16 AM — In phone interviews this morning, Trump told Breitbart News Daily and CNN that it would come out that people who knew Mateen did not report him. “Muslims don’t report these people,” he declared.

11:10 AM — Update on wounded survivors.

Per CNN, 6 patients released from the hospital, 6 in the operating room today following the mass shooting in #Orlando.

11:04 AM — A former co-worker said he complained to his superiors about Mateen, who talked about killing people. The employer, however, did nothing for fear of political correctness.

Gilroy, a former Fort Pierce police officer, said Mateen frequently made homophobic and racial comments. Gilroy said he complained to his employer several times but it did nothing because he was Muslim. Gilroy quit after he said Mateen began stalking him via multiple text messages — 20 or 30 a day. He also sent Gilroy 13 to 15 phone messages a day, he said.

“I quit because everything he said was toxic,” Gilroy said Sunday, “and the company wouldn’t do anything. This guy was unhinged and unstable. He talked of killing people.”

Gilroy said this shooting didn’t come as a surprise to him.

10:45 AM — Trump also cancels fundraisers.

Donald Trump's fundraisers in Boston, which was expected to be huge, & New Hampshire today have been canceled, per @CassieSpodak/@SaraMurray

10:01 AM — Orlando Police Department released a new timeline of events that only muddy the waters even more. If an officer confronted him within minutes and he barricaded himself in a bathroom with 4 or 5 hostages, when did he kill 49 people? Why did “dozens” of people escape the bathroom after police punched a hole in it?

Gunman Omar Mateen killed 49 people and left 53 others injuredin three-hour Sunday attack that police chief John Mina described in the greatest detail yet on Monday morning. A police officer confronted Mateen immediately after the shooting began, Mina said, causing the gunman to retreat to a bathroom and take people hostage.

Police then rescued “dozens and dozens of people”, many wounded, from inside the club, Mina said, and caught their first glimpse of the massacre within.

Mateen barricaded himself in a bathroom with four to five people,and officers began negotiations. Mina said Mateen was “cool and calm” and “Wasn’t asking a whole lot. We were doing most of the asking.” They spoke about explosive devices and more loss of life, and it was in the bathroom that Mateen called a 911 operator.

Mina said he ordered a rescue at about 5am. Officers set off distraction explosives and tried to blow a hole in the wall of the bathroom. The controlled blast was only partially successful, so they they rammed the wall with an armored vehicle, creating a hole 3-4ft wide. Dozens of people escaped through the hole, and police rescued others in the club.

The gunman himself came out of the hole armed with a handgun and long gun, Mina said, and Mateen was shot dead there in a gun battle with police before sunrise. Mateen was the 50th person killed on Sunday.

9:53 AM — The young man who sent chilling text messages to his mother — which went viral on Sunday — has been confirmed as dead. Officials have revised the number of fatalities in Mateen’s slaughter to 49, with the 29-year-old jihadist now counted as the 50th person killed.